Frontier, you need to rethink ship pricing.

[Icebrand]

So, I'm a bounty hunter. That's all I've done since late beta, and basically all I want to do most of the time. After decking out my starting Eagle, I eventually moved up to a Viper, which I've been flying for quite a while now. I currently have a mostly B-grade Viper, in which I've taken down a couple Pythons and Clippers and some other fairly big game. But mostly I spend my time prowling for whatever bounties I can find.

I'm going to just be completely honest here. I'm getting a little tired of all these ships that cost millions of credits. In a couple hours' time, I will be lucky to bring in 100k. That's not even one quarter of one A-grade component for my Viper. And that's if I happen to run across some good targets that don't escape and jump outside my range. Frequently I don't come back with a good haul. But at this kind of rate, I will never, ever, have 20-something million credits to buy the next ship up from my 143k Viper. I would have to grind for months on end, and even then, I wouldn't be able to afford to outfit it or replace it if it gets blown away.

I like the look of the new Fer-de-Lance, but how will I ever get the 100 MILLION CREDITS to purchase just the base ship? And that won't cover outfitting, operating costs, or insurance? I don't die often, but will every death cost me a month of grinding? My brain hurts just thinking about it.

The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that only traders are allowed to make the kind of money required to play combat in anything larger than a Viper, which is a complete balance fail and makes no sense. Combat ships need to cost a reasonable amount for what a combat pilot can earn. If they can't, you aren't doing something right.

 

[Bokugo]

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=124528

This should help



​hopefully

 

[dioogio]

You need to read the forums a bit more... The Devs have announced price drops for all combat ships later this week.
Edit: Damn, 1 minute too late lol.

 

[Icebrand]

Hmm... Well, that's welcome news, but we'll have to see just how far they go. They would have to slash the cost of all combat ships and their components by ten fold for them to be reasonable. I guess we'll see.

And I'm also concerned as to what they will classify as a combat ship.

 

[Hitsuke]

Hmm... Well, that's welcome news, but we'll have to see just how far they go. They would have to slash the cost of all combat ships and their components by ten fold for them to be reasonable. I guess we'll see.

And I'm also concerned as to what they will classify as a combat ship.

Ten fold? Erm no lol. Even a 20% reduction would be generous, but I'm guessing it's going to go one step further and be around 25%. If that's still not good enough, then I'd suggest earning some money like the rest of us have. I've made roughly half of my 60m assets through combat, so its not impossible.

 

[Icebrand]

Actually, ten fold wouldn't even cut it.

 

[Derath]

Hmm... Well, that's welcome news, but we'll have to see just how far they go. They would have to slash the cost of all combat ships and their components by ten fold for them to be reasonable. I guess we'll see.

And I'm also concerned as to what they will classify as a combat ship.

getting 150 mil BH is unreasonable, but getting 30 really isn't a tough goal, when the game came out I worked my way to my python with a little over 50% combat it was a nice way to mix things up really, if combat ships were cheap everyone would fly them, and as they are vastly superior to the medium none-combat variants (asp primarily) they need a sizeable price tag to stop them being the most common ship.

 

[Bluebottle]

if combat ships were cheap everyone would fly them

People keep saying this, or related things, and I just don't get it. That wouldn't happen at all. Traders would still use trade ships or multirole ships, because combat ships suck at trading. Explorers would still use Asps, because combat ships have terrible range. People who want to do a bit of everything without constantly swapping ships would still use multirole ships, because combat ships are only really suitable for combat. The only "everyone" who would fly combat ships would be ... people doing exclusively combat. And ... isn't that kind of the point?

Pretty much the only ship that would lose out would be the Asp, which would mostly be used for exploration if there was a combat alternative in the same price range. And I really don't see how having the Asp EXPLORER mostly used by EXPLORERS would be bad.

 

[Goilveig]

People keep saying this, or related things, and I just don't get it. That wouldn't happen at all. Traders would still use trade ships or multirole ships, because combat ships suck at trading. Explorers would still use Asps, because combat ships have terrible range. People who want to do a bit of everything without constantly swapping ships would still use multirole ships, because combat ships are only really suitable for combat. The only "everyone" who would fly combat ships would be ... people doing exclusively combat. And ... isn't that kind of the point?

Very well said.

 

[Zelos1983]

Combat ships are cheap.

I bounty hunt in my multi-role cobra, often I come back to rearm my guns having earned more than 150k. I don't find it that hard to kill my prey, even bigger ships. Seldom it occurs that somebody escapes.

Besides, if one wants bigger ships, then bounty hunting might not be the best way to get them. Figure out how the game works.

 

[Epicurean Dream]

If you're bringing in 100k in a couple of hours from bounty hunting, you're doing something terribly wrong :/ I often bounty hunt and I'll be making 150-200k in a half an hour to 45 minute run, tops. Now I'm not saying this to waggle my e-peen, I'm generally curious as to why you're getting horrendous returns for the amount of time you're putting in. I understand your gripe completely if this is your experience, it isn't supposed to be, and it shouldn't be (I made 500k today in 3 hours of casual BH play) If you're not making the same, obviously you're going to feel like everything is way too over priced.

Would you be so kind as to give me a relatively informative overview of your BH routines? Considering you've been doing it for a good few months now. I'm genuinely curious/perplexed.

 

[Hitsuke]

People keep saying this, or related things, and I just don't get it. That wouldn't happen at all. Traders would still use trade ships or multirole ships, because combat ships suck at trading. Explorers would still use Asps, because combat ships have terrible range. People who want to do a bit of everything without constantly swapping ships would still use multirole ships, because combat ships are only really suitable for combat. The only "everyone" who would fly combat ships would be ... people doing exclusively combat. And ... isn't that kind of the point?

Pretty much the only ship that would lose out would be the Asp, which would mostly be used for exploration if there was a combat alternative in the same price range. And I really don't see how having the Asp EXPLORER mostly used by EXPLORERS would be bad.

Derath isn't talking about traders & explorers. He's talking about combat ships. If the Vulture was super cheap, like you think it should be, no one would fly Cobras or Vipers... there would be no point in them even being in game. The Vulture is priced higher to give combat pilots something juicier to aim for, if it was much cheaper every combat pilot would have one and people would start saying "We need a combat ship that's one up from the Vulture".

A Bounty Hunter can make roughly 1m credits an hour at RES sites now since 1.2. So even at 3 hours a day, you could have a nicely fitted Vulture in under two weeks.

So go and earn it...

 

[Goilveig]

Besides, if one wants bigger ships, then bounty hunting might not be the best way to get them. Figure out how the game works.

The point is, the people who designed and made the game didn't intend or want the game to work the way it does now. The idea of the game was to give many options for different play styles, and make each one able to sustain itself and progress though the various role-appropriate ships by itself.

Really, trading was just the part that was "finished" first - it was the career path that was most complete at launch. It wasn't intended to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

 

[Hitsuke]

The point is, the people who designed and made the game didn't intend or want the game to work the way it does now. The idea of the game was to give many options for different play styles, and make each one able to sustain itself and progress though the various role-appropriate ships by itself.

Really, trading was just the part that was "finished" first - it was the career path that was most complete at launch. It wasn't intended to stand head and shoulders above the rest.

Combat income is getting buffed soon, and the 1.2 changes to RES sites is already a huge improvement. 1m an hour is more than possible now, which is still short of a traders income, but it is respectable.

Ship prices don't need to come down anywhere near as much as the OP wants. Maybe 20-25% AT MOST!

 

[CloneWarrior85]

When will the community AND the devs understand that it's the combat players that need money BOOST, not ship price reduction?


We've been saying this since early beta (probably before beta 2, but i can only speak about beta 2).

We're on gold 1.2, and they still didn't understand this.


I know what Michael said, but it doesn't assure us if pure-combatants will finally see enough profits to be able to use (and loose) anything more expensive than the cobra.


Pure combatants loose more ships than non-combatants, and now with the integration of wings, solo players will be jumped by groups, and as much good as they are, they will fall. And paying those insurances... isn't viable.

Even if you made 1mil easily by BH or Smuggling (you won't do it from the 2nd), working 5-10h for each loss, isn't viable. The RNG from BH is still a mess :/

 

[Soliluna]

Hmm... Well, that's welcome news, but we'll have to see just how far they go. They would have to slash the cost of all combat ships and their components by ten fold for them to be reasonable. I guess we'll see.

And I'm also concerned as to what they will classify as a combat ship.

10 fold ? lol

You can make millions per hour and you think they need to be cut ten fold?

I would say the pricing is off by maybe, 10%. Maybe.

 

[Goilveig]

A Bounty Hunter can make roughly 1m credits an hour at RES sites now since 1.2. So even at 3 hours a day, you could have a nicely fitted Vulture in under two weeks.

"Even at" 3 hours per day? That's about 60-70% of the free time I have. That also places upgrading from one ship to the next better ship at a longer play time than most modern games are, start to finish.

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When will the community AND the devs understand that it's the combat players that need money BOOST, not ship price reduction?

Michael did say they know and are planning to tackle the problem on both ends. Ship price reduction is something that can happen quickly.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

"Even at" 3 hours per day? That's about 60% of the free time I have. That also places upgrading from one ship to the next better ship at a longer play time than most modern games are, start to finish.

So whats the rush? Elite isn't a game to be consumed quickly. I don't know about you but I quite like the feeling of putting work in, saving for something and finally getting it.
I've clocked up well over 1000 hours in the game this past year and I've still not done everything I'd like to.

 

[Keljian]

I am a combat pilot, or at least I like the rush more than the other professions. I had a viper and a cobra and could fight with the best of them.

Now I have a T7, after what I consider countless hours of trading because I needed more cash.. My combat skills are now rusty, so when I go back into serious combat I will need practice.. I don't like the situation but I am coping with it

 

[Rall]

Very well said.

Agreed, I'm a combat heavy player, who also likes to trade.

So I'm always in a multirole, I used to have a trade ship and a combat ship, and flying back to the combat ship every time I wanted to pew-pew was a massive pain. Sometimes I was hundreds of light years away.

Now I only run one ship, occasionally a need to do a quick refit if I want some more cargo for a really good run, or beams for a nice looking bounty, but it's much less hassle than traipsing across the galaxy.

If the Fer De Lance comes down to a half reasonable price, I’ll sell up and buy that, get my combat rating up to Deadly. After that it’ll be back into a multirole Python or Anaconda.